House cleaning

Repeated failure should lead to the obvious conclusion that the subject in question is unworkable. The Women’s Reservation Bill has failed repeatedly. Cleared by a Joint Parliamentary Committee in 1996, the bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on the last day of the budget session this year, having survived a long history of bitter and varied opposition. That narrative continues unabated. Even now, those who had opposed the bill at the time of its introduction in the Upper House are not willing to bend. As a result, the Parliamentary Committee on Women’s Reservation Bill enjoys no unanimity on 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and the state legislatures.

While Lalu Prasad conceded some ground and parties like Mulayam Singh Yadav’s feared the bill would reduce their power since they don’t have too many women leaders or would benefit only “elite” women, the CPM has remained the most vocal champion of the bill in an undiluted form. To get everybody on board, the committee had proposed leaving it to state legislatures to decide adequate representation for OBCs and women in the Vidhan and Lok Sabhas. This formula too has failed now. And some committee members believe the concerns of those opposing the bill must be addressed.

There are only 44 women MPs in the 14th Lok Sabha and the recent assembly elections saw only a dismal number of women candidates fielded by the contending parties, including the Congress and the BJP. Clearly, parties have paid no heed to proposals urging them to allow more women to contest polls. Meanwhile, supporters of the bill too are uncomfortable about keeping 33 per cent of seats reserved by rotating constituencies because constituency rotation works against the democratic parliamentary mechanism. In an environment of all-round intransigence, it might make more sense to first compel political parties to offer an adequate number of election tickets to women. They can decide who and where. Anything’s better than the current standoff.